source Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org (Beirut) - The United Arab Emirates attorney general should immediately drop all charges against five pro-democracy activists to halt their trial, Human Rights Watch said today. The charges of "humiliating" top officials relate solely to the defendants' peaceful use of speech to criticize the UAE governmen […]

June 5, 2011After 21 hearings, Chris O'Donnell, the Australian chief executive of Dubai's major developer, Nakheel, came to the defence of his former colleagues Matthew Joyce and Marcus Lee. Mr Joyce and Mr Lee are accused of profiting from the sale of land that had been earmarked for a colossal high-rise development, which was to include the futur […]

Dubai June 7, 2011 Nakheel said on Wednesday that its CEO Chris O'Donnell had left the company "after completing his contract terms". O'Donnell, an Australian who joined the developer in 2006, said he had decided to leave Nakheel following five years spent with the company, the statement added. O'Donnell has overseen a traumatic time […]

Dubai property developer Damac said on Tuesday it had filed an international arbitration case against Egypt over a land dispute and the conviction of its chairman and owner, Hussain Sajwani.A Cairo court last week sentenced Sajwani in his absence to jail and ordered him to pay a $40.5 million fine in connection with his 2006 purchase of land at Egypt's […]

Investors in Dubai Palm Jumeirah’s Golden Mile complex will this week serve the developer behind the project with a legal ultimatum to hand over their units or issue them with a refund.Up to ten investors in the luxury complex plan to issue Souq Residences with legal notice in a bid to force a resolution to a dispute that has been ongoing for more than a yea […]

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Posts Tagged ‘Nasser bin Ghaith’

On Sunday, after being held in prison for almost eight months, the five were convicted of insulting the UAE’s leadership, endangering national security and inciting people to protest.

Then a day later, they received a presidential pardon and were freed.

One of the five, Ahmed Mansour is a prominent blogger. Another, Nasser bin Gaith, is an economics professor who has lectured at Paris’ Sorbonne university in Abu Dhabi.

The two told The Associated Press that they spent days in solitary confinement in Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba prison. The rest of the time they were held with convicted killers, terrorists, rapists, adulterous, drug dealers and pirates.

“It’s a mixed feeling to be out,” bin Gaith told the AP after his release. “I am with my family, but our arrests mark the beginning of a police state in the UAE.”

(Beirut) – The United Arab Emirates attorney general should
immediately drop all charges against five pro-democracy activists to
halt their trial, Human Rights Watch said today. The charges of
“humiliating” top officials relate solely to the defendants’ peaceful
use of speech to criticize the UAE government and therefore violate
their freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. UAE authorities
should release the activists unconditionally and without delay.

The five defendants, who include a leading human rights activist,
Ahmed Mansoor, and a university lecturer, Nasser bin Ghaith, pled not
guilty on June 14, 2011, during a closed-door hearing in Abu Dhabi’s
Federal Supreme Court. The trial follows a campaign of harassment
against the activists after they and dozens of other UAE nationals signed a petition published on March 9 that sought constitutional and parliamentary
changes in the Emirates and free elections in which all citizens could participate.

UAE rulers are prosecuting these activists solely for advocating democratic reforms,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should end this shameful crackdown on peaceful dissent.”
The five activists have been detained and denied bail since early April. Local news reports said that dozens of pro-government protesters holding banners and flags gathered outside the courtroom on June 14 and
shouted slogans condemning the activists. The next hearing is scheduled for July 18.

Authorities arrested Mansoor on April 8 and are holding him at the Al Wathba prison in Abu Dhabi. Mansoor has been a vocal proponent of the petition. Before his arrest, he gave numerous television and other media interviews on the issue.
Mansoor is a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East advisory committee.

On April 10, security forces detained bin Ghaith, an economics lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of Paris’ Sorbonne
University, who has criticized UAE authorities for failing to undertake significant political reforms. The three other detained online activists are Fahad Salim Dalk, Hassan Ali al-Khamis, and Ahmed Abd al-Khaleq.
In early June, UAE authorities charged the five detainees under article 176 of the Penal Code, which permits a sentence of up to five years in prison for “whoever publicly humiliates the State President, its flag or national emblem.” Article 8 of the code widens the application of the provision to include the vice president, members of the Supreme Council of the Federation, and others. The charges came after Attorney General Salim Saeed Kubaish said on April 25 that the
five detainees were in “preventive custody” for “instigation, breaking laws and perpetrating acts that pose a threat to state security,undermining the public order, opposing the government system, and insulting the president, the vice president and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.”

In the weeks following the arrests, the UAE expanded its crackdown on civil society by dissolving the elected board of directors of both the Jurist Association and the Teachers’ Association. The decrees, signed by Social Affairs Minister Mariam Mohammed Khalfan Al Roumi, dismissed the boards and replaced their members with state appointees. Both associations, along with two other nongovernmental organizations, had signed a public appeal calling for greater democracy in the country on April 6.

The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders provides that countries should “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of everyone against any violence, threats, retaliation, adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action” as a result of their participation in human rights activity.

Article 32 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which has been ratified by the UAE, guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to impart news to others by any means. The only restrictions allowed on the practice of this right are those imposed for “respect for the rights of others, their reputation, or the protection
of national security, public order, public health, or public morals.”

For the past four months, hundreds of thousands of voices demanding variations on a theme—democracy, human rights, an end to torture, a stop to corruption—have echoed from Morocco to Yemen, each with its own local variation. In the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven small semi-autonomous sheikdoms, that voice sounded a little hoarse. More like a whisper, you might say. And then it went silent.

Since April 8 , 2011 the Emirati government has arrested five prominent Emiratis—activists, bloggers and an academic—for signing a petition calling for reform, and thrown them in jail, where they remain to this day. They are being held without charges, although they are in contact with their families and lawyers.

The five detainees are among over 160 professionals who on March 9 submitted what has to be one of the gentlest pleas for political reform in recent history, which included a request to make the Federal National Council, the UAE’s powerless legislative body, at least open to universal contestation. On February 24 President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced he was doubling the pool of eligible voters, to around 12,000. That is still less than 2 percent of the Emirati population.

(For the record, here’s what Emirati rabble-rousing sounds like: “Please We, the undersigned, a group of people of the United Arab Emirates, rise up to serve your Generous Highness and Their Highnesses Members of Supreme Council of the Federation of deep appreciation and respect…” the petition begins. “Out of our deep concern for this nation, and its people, who are your sons…” it continues. A fiery battle cry it is not.)

But even this was too much. On April 8, at 3 am, several police asked Ahmed Mansoor, one of the signatories, a blogger and a member of the Human Rights Watch advisory committee, to come down to “answer some questions about his car.” (Incidentally, this was the same approach that security officials used to take Naji Hamdan, a United States citizen who allegedly was tortured in custody.) Fearing a trap, he refused to come down, but was taken away by a second group of security officers that same afternoon.

Two days later Nasser bin Ghaith, a prominent Emirati economist and lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the University of Paris-Sorbonne, was also carted away. His ostensible crime was urging the UAE, on television shows and in panel discussions, to become more transparent, as a means to further economic development. In subsequent days, three other online activists, Fahad Salim Dalk, Hassan Ali al-Khamis and Ahmed Abdul Khaleq, were arrested. In the weeks that followed, the government dissolved the boards of two of the country’s oldest civil society organizations, the Jurists’ Association and the Teachers’ Association, for signing a similar petition.

Two civil society activists and an economist have been detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), apparently linked to their calls for political reform. Their lawyer does not know where they are being held. They are likely to be prisoners of conscience.

Ahmad Mansoor, a blogger associated with Hewar, an online political forum that is blocked by the UAE authorities, was detained on 8 April by a group of plain-clothed security officials from Amn al-Dawla, the UAE’s security police, together with two uniformed police. They took him from his home which they then searched, removing computers, books and documents. Hours earlier, before dawn, he had received a visit from men who said they were police and wanted to question him about his car, but he refused to accompany them, suspecting that it was a ruse to detain him. Reports suggest that the UAE authorities are attributing his arrest to an alcohol offence, saying bottles of whisky were found in Ahmed Mansoor’s car; however, the real reason for his arrest is believed to be his activism in supporting calls for political and other change in the UAE. The UAE is a confederation of seven emirates whose ruling families do not permit direct elections or political parties.

Fahad Salem al-Shehhi, 38, was arrested at his home in Ajman Emirate at 7 pm on 10 April. He too is associated with the online political forum, Hewar. Nasser bin Ghaith, an economist and lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne University in Paris, was also detained on 10 April in Dubai. He too has written articles online advocating political reform in the UAE.

According to three detainees’ lawyer, the authorities said they would produce them at a holding centre in Dubai but then failed to do so. There are fears that they may be held by Amn al-Dawla in Abu Dhabi and that they are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Their lawyer expressed particular concern for Ahmed Mansoor, who he said had received death threats and told Amnesty International that he, too, had received death threats via Facebook.PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in Arabic, English or your own language:

Expressing concern about the arrest and detention of Ahmad Mansoor, Fahad Salem al-Shehhi and Nasser bin Ghaith, all known peaceful advocates of political reform, and asking to be informed of the reasons for their arrest and their current legal status;

Calling for the three detainees to be released immediately and unconditionally if, as it appears, they are prisoners of conscience who are being held solely on account of their peaceful expression of their conscientiously held beliefs;

Urging the authorities to immediately disclose their whereabouts, to ensure that they are protected from torture and other ill-treatment and have access to a lawyer, their families and any medical treatment they might require;

Calling on the authorities to remove restrictions on the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly, in line with international human rights law and standards.

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

ADVOCATES OF POLITICAL REFORM DETAINED IN UAE

Additional Information

Human Rights UAE Dubai

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates, each governed by an absolute ruler called an amir. The individual emirates do not hold local elections. Instead, a regionally determined and selected National Electoral Committee elects half the members of a consultative body, the 40-person Federal National Council (FNC), which sits in Abu Dhabi. The other 20 are appointed by the president. The term of office is two years. Amongst its limited remit, the FNC can examine and amend federal legislation but not veto it.

On 9 March, over 130 civil and political rights activists in the UAE petitioned the president of the UAE to introduce universal, direct elections for the FNC and to give it legislative powers. Ahmed Mansoor had strongly and openly supported the petition and gave a range of media interviews to support the initiative.

On 11 April, a Dubai police official was quoted in Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper saying that Ahmed Mansoor was detained on the authority of the Federal Prosecutor in connection with a ‘criminal case’. However, no details were provided. Amnesty International believes this to be a pretext to legitimise his arrest.

Ahmed Mansoor, like his lawyer, Abdelhamid al-Kumaitli, has recreived death threats via Facebook. One, according to HRW, was sent on 5 April and stated: “Ahmed Mansoor, you are dead. I swear that I will search for you in every house. I swear to God that I will cut you in pieces … if I don’t slaughter you, my cousins will cut your head, you dog.”

Ahmed Mansoor and Fahad al-Shehhi were reportedly active in Hewar, an online political forum which is banned in the UAE. Nasser bin Ghaith is an economics professor at the Abu Dhabi branch of France’s Sorbonne University.

Political suspects in the UAE are commonly held incommunicado in undisclosed locations. Those arrested by Amn al-Dawla are reportedly often kept in solitary confinement. A few political detainees have been allowed to make brief and limited phone calls to their families.

Political parties do not exist in the UAE; political dissent is not tolerated and there are severe restrictions on freedom of expression and association. Websites have been targeted for closure and their owners prosecuted for defamation.

The use of torture of political detainees has been widely reported. Methods have included sleep deprivation, suspension by the wrists or ankles followed by severe beatings to the soles of the feet and even the use of electric shocks to various parts of the body.

The UN Human Rights Committee has commented that routine prolonged solitary confinement is inconsistent with the obligation on states to ensure prisoners are treated with humanity and with respect for their inherent dignity. (General comment 21/44, 6 April 1992).